This application is related to Japanese Patent Applications No. Hei. 11-307160 filed on Oct. 28, 1999, No. 2000-71060 filed on Mar. 9, 2000, No. 2000-84750 filed on Mar. 22, 2000, No. 2000-126160 filed on Apr. 26, 2000, No. 2000-213009 filed on Jul. 13, 2000, and No. 2000-213010 filed on Jul. 13, 2000, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner with a control system which learns a blower voltage control operation due to a passenger""s manual operation so that a blower voltage control characteristic corresponding to a passenger desire can be obtained.
2. Description of Related Art
In a vehicle air conditioner described in JP-A-5208610, a blower voltage control characteristic showing a relationship between a target air temperature blown into a passenger compartment and a blower voltage applied to a blower is stored in a control system, and the blower voltage control characteristic is corrected every time the blower voltage is manually set (changed). However, even when an air-blowing amount of a passenger""s desire is not set, the blower voltage control characteristic is corrected every time the blower voltage is manually set. Accordingly, the blower voltage control characteristic does not correspond to the passenger""s desire, and air-conditioning feeling is deteriorated.
In a vehicle air conditioner described in JP-A-6143970, a passenger""s operation for setting an air amount, an air temperature or the like is learned by a control system, and an air-conditioning control characteristic is corrected by learning the passenger""s operation. In this control system, environment conditions such as an outside air temperature and a sunlight amount entering into a passenger compartment are stored so that a passenger""s sense relative to the environment conditions is reflected to the correction of the air-conditioning control characteristic. Regarding the sunlight amount, only when the sunlight amount detected by a sunlight amount sensor is changed more than a predetermined amount, the air-conditioning control characteristic is corrected. However, because the sunlight amount detected by the sunlight amount sensor is directly used, when a vehicle is in traveling between buildings in favorable weather, the detected sunlight amount is repeatedly greatly changed, and the air-conditioning control characteristic is repeatedly changed. Accordingly, a suitable air-conditioning performance is not obtained.
In a vehicle air conditioner described in JP-A-342325, when a manual change operation of set air temperature is performed, the manual change operation is directly learned in connection with environment conditions such as the outside air temperature and the inside air temperature, and air-conditioning control is performed based on the learned set temperature. However, all manual change operation of the set air temperature are directly learned to be used for the air-conditioning control, the next air conditioning control may be affected when the manual change of the set air temperature becomes larger.
In addition, in a vehicle air conditioner described in JP-A-6-106953, a blower voltage control characteristic stored in a ROM is learned and changed in accordance with a passenger""s manual operation, and an air amount to be blown into a passenger compartment is controlled based on the learned and changed blower voltage control characteristic. Because the manual operator is generally the driver of the vehicle, the blower voltage control characteristic is made to correspond to the driver""s desire. However, when the other passenger except for the driver is in the passenger compartment, the air amount, controlled based on the learned and changed blower voltage control characteristic, may be not suitable for the other passenger.
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner with a control system correcting a control characteristic based on a manual set value of an air amount of a blower, which can prevent air-conditioning feeling from being deteriorated even when a passenger""s desired air amount is not set.
It is an another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner with a control system correcting a control characteristic in accordance with a passenger""s operation, which improves a learning effect of the passenger""s operation while a stable air-conditioning performance is obtained.
It is a further another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner with a control system which learns and stores a passenger""s set temperature in connection with an environment condition, and automatically controls an air conditioning state of a passenger compartment based on a stored set temperature. In the vehicle air conditioner, a rapid change of an air-conditioning control amount can be prevented, and a pleasant air conditioning control can be obtained.
It is a further another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner with a control system correcting a control characteristic for an automatic control in accordance with a passenger""s operation, in which the control characteristic can be corrected only to correspond to a predetermined passenger""s desire.
It is a further another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner with a manual operation of a predetermined passenger for which an air conditioning control is performed based on a learning pattern, which improves air conditioning performance for the other passenger except for the predetermined passenger.
According to an aspect of the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner, a control system determines an air amount blown by a blower based on a control characteristic having a relationship between a control factor used for a temperature control of a passenger compartment and the air amount of the blower, and a set value of the air amount of the blower is manually controlled through a manual setting member. The control system corrects the control characteristic based on the set value due to the manual setting member. When the set value of the air amount of the blower is changed by the manual setting member, the control system determines a correction degree of the control characteristic in accordance with a determination whether a difference between a value of the control factor at the previous manual operation of the manual setting member and a value of the control factor at the present manual operation of the manual setting member is equal to or larger than a predetermined value. Specifically, the control system corrects the control characteristic without using the set value of the air amount at the previous manual operation, when the difference is smaller than the predetermined value. Alternatively, the control system corrects the control characteristic by using the mean value of the set value of the air amount at the previous manual operation and the set value of the air amount at the present manual operation, when the difference is smaller than the predetermined value. Accordingly, it can prevent an air-conditioning feeling from being deteriorated due to a mis-learning.
On the other hand, the control system stores a plurality of the set values due to plural manual operations of the manual setting member, and selects correction set values to be used for a correction of the control characteristic among the set values. Further, the control system corrects the control characteristic only based on the correction set values. Therefore, unnecessary information is not learned, and the control characteristic can be corrected in accordance with a passenger""s desire.
According to an another aspect of the present invention, a vehicle air conditioner includes a sensor for detecting an environment condition relative to an air conditioning state of a passenger compartment, a manual operation member manually operated by a passenger for setting a set value of the air conditioning state, and a control system for controlling the air conditioning state. The control system includes calculation means in which a detection value of the sensor is calculated in accordance with a predetermined calculation process to a sensor output value. The control system automatically controls the air conditioning state of the passenger compartment based on the sensor output value in accordance with a control characteristic. When the set value due to the manual operation member is changed, the control system corrects the control characteristic using a value approximating the detection value of the sensor, than the sensor output value. Accordingly, a learning effect of the manual operation member can be improved under the environment condition which is actually sensed by the passenger, while a stable air-conditioning performance is obtained using the sensor output value.
According to a further another aspect of the present invention, an air conditioner includes a temperature setting unit for setting temperature of a passenger compartment to a passenger""s set temperature, a memory unit which learns and stores the passenger""s set temperature in connection with an environment condition relative to an air conditioning state of the passenger compartment, a calculation unit for calculating an air-conditioning control amount based on a stored set temperature corresponding to the environment condition, among a plurality of stored set temperatures stored in the memory unit, and a control system for automatically controlling the air conditioning state based on the air-conditioning control amount from the calculation unit. The stored set temperature used for the calculation of the air-conditioning control amount is changed in accordance with a change of the environment condition. When a difference of the stored set temperature before the change and the stored set temperature after the change is equal to or larger than a predetermined temperature, the control system sets a correction set temperature different from the stored set temperature, and the calculation unit calculates the air-conditioning control amount based on the correction set temperature. Preferably, the control system gradually changes the correction set temperature from a value near the stored set temperature before the change to a value near the stored set temperature after the change. Accordingly, a rapid change can be prevented, and air conditioning performance can be improved.
When the passenger""s set temperature is changed through the temperature setting unit, the control system determines whether the changed passenger""s set temperature is learned in accordance with a control amount difference between an air-conditioning control amount calculated based on the changed passenger""s set temperature and the air-conditioning control amount calculated based on the stored set temperature. Specifically, when the control amount difference is smaller than a predetermined value, the control system prohibits the learning of the changed passenger""s set temperature. Therefore, a memory using amount can be made smaller.
According to a further another aspect of the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner, a control system automatically controls an air conditioning state of a passenger compartment based on an output value from a sensor in accordance with a control characteristic, and corrects the control characteristic for an automatic control of the air conditioning state based on a set value of a manual operation member. The control system has operator determining means for determining a seat position of an operator operating the manual operation member in the passenger compartment when the set value of the air amount of the blower is manually set through the manual operation member, and the control system determines a correction method of the control characteristic based on a determination of the operator determining means. For example, the control system corrects the control characteristic only when the operator operating the manual operation member is on a predetermined seat in the passenger compartment. Accordingly, only the predetermined passenger""s operation is learned, and the control characteristic corresponding to the predetermined passenger""s desire can be obtained.
According to a further another object of the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner with a control system controlling an air conditioning unit based on a control pattern having a learning pattern which is rewritten in accordance with a passenger""s desire and a general pattern which maintains an original set pattern, the control system has seat state detecting means for detecting a seated state of a passenger in the passenger compartment. When the seat state detecting means detects that a passenger is only on a predetermined seat, the control system controls the air conditioning unit based on the learning pattern. Therefore, in this case, an air conditioning operation corresponding to the predetermined passenger""s desire can be obtained. Further, when the seat state detecting means detects that a passenger is also on the other seat except for the predetermined seat, the control system controls the air conditioning unit based on at least the general pattern. Therefore, in this case, it can prevent unpleasant feeling from being given to the other passenger except for the predetermined passenger.
Preferably, when the seat state detecting means detects that a passenger is also on the other seat except for the predetermined seat, the control system controls the air conditioning unit based on both the learning pattern and the general pattern. In this case, as the number of passengers on the other seat except for the predetermined seat is larger, a contribution of the general pattern is made larger.